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College: Why You Should Stay the Course in the New Dropout Age [Infographic]

Thanks to brilliant billionaires like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and Mark Zuckerberg, dropping out of college to start a business is becoming a glamorous proposition, and coupled with our current economy, is even promising to become a new norm, since tuition rates keep rising and student loans aren’t so inviting anymore.

PayPal founder Peter Thiel (a college grad himself, ironically) is helping the dynamic shift along, having awarded 24 students $100K to drop out of school and start their new businesses. However, is that really the message we should be sending to college students?

4 Reasons Not to Jump Ship Just Yet

1. Remember the college student unemployment stats? According to the USBLS, the college graduate unemployment rate is 4.1%, but the college dropout unemployment rate is 7.7%. Not very promising.

Furthermore, SNHU’s infographic shows that college student demand is at 13.5% among employers, and college student starting salaries are up 3.5% this year from 2011.

2.You’re already financially committed, so you might as well finish. If you started with student loans, and the semester (or whatever pay period your school uses) isn’t over yet, hunt doggedly for scholarships and grants and apply for as many of them as possible. Do this for the duration of your time in school.

It’s easier said than done, of course, but before you tell me it’s impossible, I promise you it’s not – a family friend did this for the duration of her University of Florida attendance. She didn’t pay a dime out of pocket or in loans her whole four years there.

3. The most obvious reason: entrepreneurship isn’t for everyone. Some may want their own businesses, but they’re not necessarily equipped to build it themselves. It takes a certain level of discipline and tenacity to start and run a business.

4. To reason #3, the infographic demonstrates the greatest irony of all: even those brilliant college dropouts surround(ed) themselves with college grads to help them sustain their businesses, proving that college grads are still highly valuable.

So if you’re vacillating between staying or dropping out…

…weigh your options carefully. As long as you’re studying what you truly desire to do in the outside world, then you’re better off staying the course. However, if you’re a more experiential learner (the traditional lecture method isn’t suitable for everyone, of course), then diving headfirst into your field may the better choice. No matter which you choose, keep the four reasons above in mind.